Montreal, the Grace Period and the Fund

In one line

Article 5 gave the developing world ten more years and article 10 gave it the money, and without both India would not have joined.

In exam wording: article 5 of the Montreal Protocol permits any Party that is a developing country and whose annual calculated level of consumption of the Annex A controlled substances is less than 0.3 kilogrammes per capita on the date of entry into force of the Protocol for it, or at any time thereafter until 1 January 1999, to delay for ten years its compliance with the control measures; and article 10 establishes a financial mechanism, including a Multilateral Fund, to provide financial and technical cooperation to enable such Parties to comply, meeting all agreed incremental costs.

Article 5: the special situation of developing countries

Paragraph 1. Any Party that is a developing country and whose annual calculated level of consumption of the controlled substances in Annex A is less than 0.3 kilogrammes per capita on the date of entry into force of the Protocol for it, or at any time thereafter until 1 January 1999, shall, in order to meet its basic domestic needs, be entitled to delay for ten years its compliance with the control measures, subject to the conditions in the article. Such a Party shall not exceed an annual calculated level of consumption of 0.3 kilogrammes per capita, and its basic domestic needs shall be calculated by reference to specified base periods.

Paragraph 1 bis applies the same arrangement to the Annex B substances with a stated threshold and base period, and successive amendments extended the arrangement to the later Annexes.

Paragraph 2. The Parties undertake to facilitate access to environmentally safe alternative substances and technology for Parties operating under paragraph 1, and to facilitate bilaterally or multilaterally the provision of subsidies, aid, credits, guarantees or insurance programmes for the use of alternative technology and for substitute products.

Paragraph 3. A Party operating under paragraph 1 may, at any time, notify the secretariat in writing that, having taken all practicable steps, it is unable to implement any or all of the obligations in the control measures owing to the inadequate implementation of articles 5, 10 and 10A. The secretariat shall transmit the notification to the Parties, who shall at their next meeting decide upon appropriate action.

Paragraph 5 provides that developing the capacity to fulfil the obligations arising from the control measures and their implementation by Parties operating under paragraph 1 will depend upon the effective implementation of the financial cooperation in article 10 and the transfer of technology in article 10A.

Paragraph 3 is the sharpest provision and it is the one to name. A developing Party that cannot comply because the money and the technology have not arrived may say so formally, and the matter goes to the Meeting of the Parties. It converts the finance obligation from a promise into a condition of the substantive obligation, in the same way as article 4, paragraph 7, of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.